Cabin crew stories: Once upon a time in 2005, it was a 29 years girl, Mihaela Moise
Once upon a time in 2005, it was a 29 years girl who was living and working in London as an emigrant. She was fed up and quite depressed about her situation. She did not like her job, her life style and the place where she was living. She wanted a change, but “what, where?” To go back to home country was not a good idea, there were no many jobs opportunities which can offer you a decent life, she wanted more than an ordinary job. There was no idea coming up: ”Where should I go in order to be happy, what kind of job I would like to do?“, she was thinking.
One evening she saw on Romanian national news that an Arabic airline was recruiting in Bucharest for cabin crew position. “Mmmm, cabin crew? This should be really cool. I have never dared to dream about this job”, she whispered. Where is this Qatar?“ She checked on internet and she found out they were recruiting in London by the end of February. By that time was January. She had seen a company number on line and she called next day to ask for details. The thing is her temporary visa was expiring by 3rd of March and she should apply for a new one and for that she needed to submit her passport to the lawyer. So, she found herself in a difficult situation. “What should I do? If I will choose to go for the interview I will lose the opportunity to apply for the 3 years residence and then to apply for the British citizenship.“ All her friends advised her to apply for the British residence, of course. So she decided; after few days of white nights and a lot of thoughts crossing her mind , she said to herself “I will play my cards, I will go for the interview, anyway I am not happy here.” So bye bye British passport. She went to the Internet café in the local area, because in that time she didn’t have WIFI and laptop at home. She wrote the e-mail to the QR and they replied to her asking for CV, the full body and passport size photos. One lady helped her to prepare her CV and she borrows a black skirt and the shirt to take the required pictures. Two friends of her took the pictures for her with a disposable camera. It was pretty funny how the photo session took place; one was holding the lamp and the other took the pictures. After a long exhausting day of hard working she still had the energy to smile for the photos, because the energy came from inside, from her desire to be cabin crew. She sent the photos and the CV to QR and they sent her an e-mail where she was invited for the interview. In few days she should leave UK for good.
Early morning, she went to the hotel where was hold the interview, and entered in the room. She was nervous and panicked when she saw everybody dressed in business attire and so serious. She closed the door instinctively. She walked away thinking “this is not for me, I cannot compare myself with these people!” She heard a lady voice: “Are you Mihaela Moise?” “Yes I am “. She replied very confused. “Come, we were waiting for you, we have to start”, she said very politely and smiling. Her way to approach made the girl feel more relaxed.
The interview lasted for the entire day. She met people from different nationalities and the ladies that represented QR were so nice, by the end of the day she was not feeling nervous anymore. After 3 days she left London for good with no regrets just few sweet and sour memories. She got attached to the small room, which represented her privacy and her small world, but it was the time for a new change.
Back home, she started to look for a job immediately and she went for few interviews. During one interview for HR position within a German company, her sister texted her to let her know that one QR staff called her to announce that she successfully passed the interview tests and she was accepted for the cabin crew position. In the same day she was also accepted by the German company. Again she had to take a decision. It was not easy at all. A lot of questions popped out in her mind: “How is going to be in an Arabic country, that I never heard about it, I don’t really feel like leaving again and I don’t know how is going to be?” In the evening, her father helped her to take a decision:
-”You know what?”, he said, “a job of 300 EURO salary you will always find in Romania, but an opportunity like this one no, so take it as a vacation and if you don’t like it you can always come back”.
So on 1st of May 2005, Eastern Day, she left to Qatar. It was a big impact on her, when the aircraft doors were opened and a hot humid air hit her. She was going to live in 3 bedrooms flat together with 2 girls from South Africa. Next day in the morning, she saw in the bus, which took the new trainees to QR office tower, the Australian girl that she met during the interview day. She felt so happy and did not feel alone anymore. For almost 2 months she attended the safety and security, first aid and service trainings, where she needed to study hardly and to pass the exams. It was not easy but together with her colleagues that were living in the same building were studding together every day. Her first flight was to BAH (Bahrain). It was a very short flight, about 30 min. She prepared herself for the flight: knowledge, uniform and of course mentally.
Next day, early morning she entered in the briefing room for the first flight. She could not sleep at all last night, she was too nervous. The Cabin Service Director was asking questions in briefing, about the safety, first aid and service and it would not be really nice to do not answer it correctly. The next flight with the first layover for her was in Milan, she was so excited to be in Italy, she loved Italy. The layovers by that time were pretty long, about 2-3 days out station. After few months she plan to stay for 2-3 years, but she was able to say bye-bye only after almost 10 years. In the mean time she met a lot of nice people from different countries, she went in vacations in nice places, bought a flat and overall she was successful in her career. Most of the time during the briefings, she was wondering how the supervisors were able to conduct the briefings, to ask questions, to solve the unpredictable situations, to speak in front of others. When she found her Cabin Senior promotion letter in the pigeon hall, she was almost fainting. She was convinced that she would never be able to speak in front of others and to be responsible for a flight. During the CS (Cabin Senior) training she was very quiet and worried, she wanted to refuse the promotion but she heard this is would affect your career. Due to one of the QR service instructor, who was her trainer for the CS course, an amazing person, she started to enjoy the classes and to feel more confident.
The first CS flight was pretty funny, taking over the aircraft from Seychelles, which was brand new 320 Airbus, equipped with new video system and she had no clue how to operate the video. he safety demo was done manually because of that and everybody could hear her nervous voice .Her face was red as traffic lights. But she did it. It was challenging, every flight was different, there were days when she said “ENOUGH, tomorrow I will resign!”, but tomorrow she woke up and went again for the flight. And flight after flight, layovers, shopping sessions, vacations, recurrent trainings, exams, she became CSD (Cabin Service Directors) Growing professionally and becoming a strong confident person, she was grateful that she had chosen to accept this job and she did not give up when she felt overwhelmed by the situations, otherwise she would never have the occasion to see how is to talk confidently in front of the people, how would be to delegate tasks to the people, to see how is to be a leader and to take initiative and decision under pressure when everybody was watching her, she would live with the persuasion that she would never be able to do all these.
At the beginning of November 2014, she walked to the office to submit her resignation, after 9 years and 8 months. She felt physically tired and she wanted to try something else in life. The last flight was more emotionally touching that she was expecting, while she was conducting the last briefing she felt her voice quivering when she addressed to the crew “Don’t give up, what does not knock you down, makes you stronger” was her message. When she undressed last time the uniform, tears came out from her eyes. Only in that moment she felt the 10 years of her life full of memories, that time she remembered only the nice memories. It was not easy to say good bye, but she felt inside that she has to close that door and to open another one.
“What should I do next?”, She would finish to study the Health Coach , course that she had started 2 months ago. Any beginning is a challenge, but if you train your mind to be patient and you follow your inner voice, nothing can knock you down. There are taught periods in life and challenging situations, but believe me, when you thought that is nothing else you can do, something will come out for you. Nothing is by hazard in life, everything happens with a reason.
There are many other opportunities in life if one day you decide to quit this job. People are curious to hear how the flight attendant life style, what countries is did you visit and they admire you for doing this job, because most of them wish to have such of job. For those who chose to remain in Qatar and still working for QR, they found an office job as welfare officer, housing officer, safety or service instructors, performance officer, recruiters, etc. Back home, she graduated the Health Coach course, she also attended a HR Inspector course but finally she chose to work as events planner and volunteer as CHR.
Do not be afraid to try whatever you are dreaming of, don’t let others to influence you and do not be afraid of future. There is always something fated for each of us. She will never, ever regret that she chose to go for QR interview and not to apply for British residence. She will always be grateful that God sent that lady to call her back in the assessment day and her father to help her making up her mind.
I will be more than happy to assist you and to support you by answering your questions and to do for you what my father did for me.
Mihaela Moise